Sunday, 3 May 2015

Railway Poster Exhibition

An exhibition is highlighting the work of one of the country's
best-known exponents of railway posters - prints that are often now
worth more than the original artwork.Adorning railway platforms up and down the country, lavishly-coloured
posters advertised a myriad of UK destinations that were still a
mystery to many in the first half of the 20th Century.Fine
artists of the day were recruited by the major railway companies to
conjure up images that would tempt millions of people to take their
summer holiday in destinations from Withernsea to Whitley Bay.

Some of Mason's work, like this poster of the steam train "Coronation", sells for thousands of pounds

Frank Henry Mason was born in 1875 in
Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, Mason was a recognised marine artist
lured by one of the largest railway companies, LNER, to create scores of
posters for its mainly coastal stops between London and Scotland.For
51 years from 1910, Mason went on to create some of the most iconic
railway posters - some of which now sell for thousands of pounds each.A retrospective of his finest work is on show at Hartlepool Art Gallery.Edward Yardley has written a book about Mason's life and career, describing him as one of Britain's most innovative poster designers.

Many of Mason's images featured industrial subjects
Trained as a fine artist, Mason used vibrant colours
"Mason was recruited by LNER on
the back of his reputation as a marine artist," he said. "But he wasn't
a one-trick pony and could turn his hand to almost anything."The
LNER had a much bolder and experimental attitude to posters than its
rivals and this showed in their use of people like Mason, who had been
fine artists in their own right. The results were amazing."In 1927 Mason was one of five artists given exclusive contracts with LNER to create 20 or so posters every year."He continued to work for them until all the railway companies were merged into British Rail in 1948."They
[artists] would be given a subject or location and produce a rough
copy, mostly in watercolour, which would ultimately by lithographically
transferred to a poster."Even though photography was around, you
got very few photographic posters. The railway companies were acutely
aware of the impact that poster art could have in terms of promotion -
so much so that exhibitions were organised at which the best examples
were sold off."

Many of the posters depicted coastal resorts

Nicolette Tomkinson, an expert in poster art at Christie's said artists like Mason used traditional styles to stunning effect."Some of his work is really fantastic," she said."With
someone like Frank Mason, you can see that his style is very
traditional and also features a lot of industrial scenes, such as those
showing the East Coast and fishing in East Anglia."They include a lot of detail and are great pieces of history and great examples of advertising art."In
terms of value, most of these will fetch around £1,000, but some of the
more exceptional ones will go for a lot higher - up to £6,000."Interestingly, with this type of work, the posters are more valuable than the original artwork. "This
is simply because the quality of the final poster is so much higher
than the original artwork which is normally quite small. After all, the
end result was to design a poster - not to create a saleable work of
art.

"The 1920s and 1930s are
generally considered to be the heyday of the railway poster and the best
designs are usually from that period.

"The elegance and the Art
Deco feel is clear to see in a lot of the example from that era. The
colours are very simple, but also very strong and are really effective. "These
types of posters were designed to be used just for a relatively short
period of time and then they would be pasted over. But at the time,
that's how people got their information."They were up on station
platforms and this was often likened to an outdoor gallery because it
was something a lot of people looked forward to seeing. "There
isn't really an equivalent genre of advertising now and that's why
they're so special. The captured a moment in time which can never be
repeated."

"The
1920s and 1930s are generally considered to be the heyday of the
railway poster and the best designs are usually from that period. "The
elegance and the Art Deco feel is clear to see in a lot of the example
from that era. The colours are very simple, but also very strong and are
really effective. "These types of posters were designed to be
used just for a relatively short period of time and then they would be
pasted over. But at the time, that's how people got their information."They
were up on station platforms and this was often likened to an outdoor
gallery because it was something a lot of people looked forward to
seeing. "There isn't really an equivalent genre of advertising
now and that's why they're so special. The captured a moment in time
which can never be repeated."Ashore and Afloat: The art of Frank Henry Mason, can be seen at Hartlepool Art Gallery until 30 May.This article reproduced from the BBC News website. Click here to see the original article plus more posters

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